With a few updates to match their lifestyle, this contemporary home in Beverly satisfies one couple’s five-year search for their dream home by the sea.

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The home, though contemporary in form, incorporates materials common to the North Shore, such as slate and stone.

By Jaci ConryJune 24, 2012

FOR FIVE YEARS, Joe and Mary Carlucci searched for a year-round home on West Beach in Beverly Farms. “We always said the right property would eventually become available,” says Mary. Finally, in 2010, the couple’s patience paid off. “About three minutes after we walked through the front door, I was telling the broker we’d put in an offer,” says Joe.

The house that captivated the Carluccis has awe-inspiring ocean views, 4 acres of lush lawn, and 300 feet of private beach. Equally appealing was the home’s capacity to accommodate their family’s needs, overnight guests, and large-scale entertaining. With three sons ages 26, 25, and 17, the couple’s wish list included ample space for family time, along with some private areas.

While they were instantly smitten with the home, the Carluccis’ tastes are more traditional than the previous owners’. So, soon after purchasing the property, they sought out Beverly-based Siemasko + Verbridge, which had originally designed the house, to help them create a warmer feel and rethink some of the rooms.

“They were interested in us educating them about the house,” says the firm’s interior design principal, Jean Verbridge. They wondered, for example, about the home’s unusual shape: Rather than build the home parallel to the water, the designers had turned it to a 45-degree angle, for more coastal vistas.

“On one side you can see out to Marblehead; on the other side, Manchester is visible,” says Thaddeus Siemasko, principal architect. “Each room has a water view, and some have two.” Angling the structure also made it possible to create outdoor areas with more privacy.

“The house consists of three connecting rectangles that work together but also function separately,” Siemasko says. One section contains informal spaces: the kitchen, family room, and family bedrooms. The second comprises the formal dining and living rooms and guest quarters; the third includes the garage, mudroom, a small indoor pool, and home offices.

With windows that vary in size and placement and curved exterior details, the house has a contemporary feel, though it was built with materials traditional to the North Shore. “Roofs are slate, side walls are shingled, the base work is stone,” says Siemasko, who points out that natural materials lend a timeless quality to the home.

Ultimately it made sense for the Carluccis to eliminate the guest rooms on the home’s lower level to make a game room, home gym, and wine cellar. One of two original home offices became a guest suite. And they relocated the laundry room to accommodate another closet in the master bedroom.

The designers also helped the couple select tranquil interior paint colors that reflect the outdoors and helped edit their furniture — much of which was too traditional for the home, says Mary. A new custom mahogany dining table made by Hamilton-based craftsman Dan Rice satisfies the Carluccis’ traditional leanings yet works with the home’s contemporary details. The dining chairs, manufactured by the Bright Group, are upholstered with two different sea-glass-blue fabrics — a patterned motif on the backs of the chairs and an easier-to-clean solid on the seats. The mother-of-pearl chandelier is transitional in style, striking a balance with the more contemporary open display shelves and the traditional woven wool rug.

“People say this is the prettiest house they’ve ever been in. I have to say, ‘Yes. I agree,’ ” says Mary. But even more precious to her is the fact that the home brings her family and friends together. And when a little downtime is needed, “there are many nooks and crannies both inside and outside for different groups of people to be together and not be in each other’s way,” she says. “It really is the perfect place.”

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